University of California, Irvine
OP-6: Clean and Renewable Energy

The Irvine campus is a participant in the University of California Wholesale Power Program which provides 100% carbon free electricity to all ten campuses. The University of California was ranked #1 by among colleges and universities by the US Environmental Protection Agency for green power usage.

Article:
https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/uc-ranks-first-among-colleges-and-universities-green-power-usage

UCI receives clean and renewable energy from multiple on-site photovoltaic (PV) projects on the UCI campus. A 109 kW ground-mounted concentrated photovoltaic array (CPV array), a 1,005 kW building rooftop mounted PV array, a 48 kW mounted PV array with battery storage on the Anteater Parking Structure, and 2,569 kW on three other parking structures.

Recovered heat from our combustion turbine power plant generates high-temperature water, which provides heating to the campus. In addition to heating the campus, recovered heat is also used in a steam turbine chiller to produce chilled water to cool the campus buildings. This is more efficient than producing electricity to in turn run an electric chiller.

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Third-party Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) that have been purchased by the campus are certified through the Green-e program. No RECs were purchased for 2019.

UC Irvine operates a steam turbine generator that is driven using the recovered heat from the combustion turbine. The steam turbine generator is only used when the campus heat load has been satisfied.

UC Irvine operates a combined heat and power (CHP) plant supplying clean energy to the campus and providing a model of clean and efficient energy delivered through a campus microgrid. The energy provided from the heat recovered from the CHP turbine (407,314 MMBtu in 2016) is delivered to provide heating to the campus as part of UCI’s district thermal energy loop. This recovered heat displaces approximately 512,344 MMBtu of natural gas which would have otherwise been burned to supply heat to the campus with a conventional boiler plant.

Clean energy provided through CHP, such as occurs in UCI’s microgrid, is recognized by the California Energy Commission, US Environmental Protection Agency, and US Department of Energy as a key clean and renewable energy strategy required to achieve state greenhouse gas emission limits and federal actions to address carbon pollution. Consistent with this strategy the Scoping Plan for the California Global Warming Solutions Act (AB 32) requires installation of 4,000 MW of additional CHP in California by 2020 and the California Clean Energy Jobs Plan calls for 6,500 MW of CHP by 2030.

UCI's campus-wide deployment of renewable energy systems provides distributed generation within the campus microgrid and supports the campus' leading-edge research in clean energy and microgrid/smart grid integration. This includes 1,005 kW of building rooftop photovoltaic (PV) panels, 109 kW of concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) ground-mounted panels, and 2,617 kW of PV panels mounted on campus parking structures. In keeping with UCI's role as a living laboratory for sustainability, these systems provide a test bed for renewable energy technology and smart grid integration of renewable energy systems onto the campus microgrid, supporting multiple collaborative research projects involving UCI faculty, staff, and students.

UC Irvine quadrupled the amount of green power it generates on-site with the addition of solar photovoltaic canopies on three campus parking structure roofs. More than 11,700 newly placed solar panels generate up to 2.6 megawatts of power, the amount needed to meet the electrical needs of 1,600 homes. UCI is installed the solar PV systems under a 25-year power purchase agreement with a subsidiary of NextEra Energy Resources LLC.